First acting role for six-year-old Debbie Lytton (Kristie). Michael Cole remembers the episode's director Richard Newton asking Debbie on reshoots to "pick it up in the middle," but Debbie would start her lines from the beginning, earning Newton's ire: "Cut. I only want you to do part of the speech, not the whole thing. Action." Cole writes, "I could see she was getting frustrated and anxious. All of a sudden I realized that this was the only way she had learned her lines. The only way she could deliver them. 'Wait,' I said, 'she has to do it from the top. That's how she memorized it.' I know it meant a lot that I was on her side. The next time the director said action, she did the entire monologue without missing a beat. We used that take because it was so touching. 'Print that,' I said" (I Played the White Guy, 2018, p. 144).
Michael Cole's favorite episode. He wrote in his 2018 autobiography "I Played the White Guy": "My favorite episode of the entire five-year run of The Mod Squad was one called 'Kristie.' It was a Christmas episode. ... I don't think anyone would have expected a story of faith on a hippie cop show, but that's what we did" (pp. 143-44).
Pete mentions a possible lead living in Madison, Wisconsin. Actor Michael Cole was born and raised in Madison.
This was a personal show for star Michael Cole, who wrote of his emotional investment in the story. "What also made this show my favorite was how tender the feelings were. I thought about my young daughter who I had left back in Wisconsin. In the scene on the first night when Kristie was left with Pete, I knelt down beside her to say our prayers, just as I had done so many years ago with Candi. I found myself welling up with tears, but I didn't want to cry in front of her. I tucked her into bed, kissed her goodnight, and it was exactly what I had done with my daughter. That's what 'emotional recall' is--drawing from your own experiences. When it's real, the audience feels it too. That's why so many of my fan/friends say it's one of their favorites too" (I Played the White Guy, 2018, p. 144).
This story takes place on December 23, 24, and 25, 1972.